American Robin waiting for spring

We think this robin must feel about like we do - hey, the calendar says it's spring! At least this was a light dusting of snow which has already mostly melted so the robins won't get too discouraged. It will be a true celebration of spring when the catbirds get here - we can hardly wait.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Honeycreepers of Trinidad and Tobago - so colorful and adorable!

Purple Honeycreeper (male)

Purple Honeycreeper (female)

Red-legged Honeycreeper(female)

Red-legged Honeycreeper(male)

Green Honeycreeper (male)

Green Honeycreeper (female)

We were very anxious to see the Honeycreepers on our trip, especially the red-legged ones. As it turned out, the star of the Honeycreeper show for us was the female Purple Honeycreeper. Almost always in the bird world, the female is quite drab in comparison to the male. Well, not these little darlings! The females were decked out in at least three shades of green and had some seriously fancy breast striping plus a pretty peach neck and eye area. Chris even commented that she herself would never have the guts to wear all those shades of green in one outfit. It just seemed like the females had the personalities to match their colors too as they darted boldly about with all the males.

A male red-legged honeycreeper made only one brief appearance at the feeders at Asa Wright, but we were able to see one again out on one of our rainforest walks. It almost seemed like cheating when we watched all the Honeycreepers coming to the nectar feeders and flowers near the center, so it was more fun in a way to find them out in the trees. And, boy, do they pop with color when they're amongst all those big deep green rainforest trees.

We ended up with a funny little ritual thanks to the Honeycreepers. Anyone who knows us understands that Mike can be sort of distracted sometimes. If you don't know us, think absent-minded professor type. When traveling, that can make it hard to remember which color toothbrush Chris packed for him. This trip we had one purple and one green toothbrush with us, and Chris used the purple one first. So when Mike asked which was his, it was the green. Anytime Mike needed a reminder which color brush was his, we just said "opposite of the honeycreepers," i.e., purple for her and green for him. If Chris had given it any forethought, she might have chosen the green first - then we would have been just like the Honeycreepers instead of the opposite. Obviously the Honeycreepers put us in a pleasant and silly state of mind.

Booby Photos from Little Tobago Island

Red-footed Boobies in trees

Brown Booby with chick

Brown Booby relaxing on the edge of a cliff

Juvenile Booby

Off the coast of Tobago, there is Little Tobago Island, a small island accessible by boat. Many boobies make their home on the trees and cliffs of this isloated island. We took a small boat out to the island, hiked to the top of the hill and saw their nests. Mike climbed down a steep trail to get closer to the chicks while Chris sensibly waited near the top. While Boobies can relax on a cliff, Chris cannot.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Goodbye Ruby-Topaz (Birds of Tobago)

On our last full day in Tobago, we spent some time observing the ruby-topaz hummingbird. The male, in the top two photos has a spectacular red head, yellow neck and orange tail when the light hits it just right. The female ruby-topaz has fewer colors on the head and neck, but just as spectacular a tail.

Jersey Birding Links

Birds at the Bird feeders

About us

For those of you visiting this site who do not know us, we thought we would offer a brief explanation of how it all happened. We have lived in several different states, including Connecticut, New Hampshire, California, Virginia, and New Jersey. The house we rented sits right on a small lake, so we initially saw lots of geese and some mallards, rather mundane yet enjoyable. There seemed to also be an abundance of woodpeckers, and we started putting suet out for them. Mike frequently gets up early, and while working from his desk in the window this past fall, he noticed something other than geese on the lake. At first it started with a Pied-billed grebe, and then we also saw briefly a Wood Duck or two, a few Ring-necked ducks, Bufflhead, and then the gorgeous Hooded Mergansers. Well, we’ve fed birds before at other homes, but we’ve never lived on water, and we were especially fascinated by the beauty of the Hooded Mergansers. We have two grown daughters and family sprinkled around the US, and we were constantly e-mailing them pictures of the birds and ducks, so we decided it would just be easier to put them up on the web to share. We are not real die-hard birders, and we have no formal photography training. We’re just a couple who is enjoying the birds and waterfowl of their own backyard and wanted to share them. So, you may find more professional pictures somewhere else, but we hope you enjoy our site as well.

We moved back to California in June 2012, and we've started a new blog, California Birds. Here are our most recent California photos.